


If You Take Me

by flipflop_diva



Category: Star Wars Sequel Trilogy
Genre: F/M, Falling In Love, First Kiss, Fluff and Angst, Love Confessions, Post-Canon, Weddings
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-02-07
Updated: 2021-02-07
Packaged: 2021-03-12 22:48:54
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,553
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29268258
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/flipflop_diva/pseuds/flipflop_diva
Summary: Rey sighed wistfully as she watched her two friends lean in toward each other as they danced, their lips meeting and melding together as they seemed to become one person instead of two separate beings. She had seen them kiss so many times, but this kiss … it was special.“I just want someone to kiss me like that,” she mused softly to herself, her eyes not leaving her friends.“I could make that happen if you wanted.”
Relationships: Poe Dameron/Finn (background), Rey/Ben Solo | Kylo Ren
Comments: 5
Kudos: 32
Collections: To Find Your Kiss: The Reylo Fanfiction Anthology's Valentine's Day Exchange





	If You Take Me

**Author's Note:**

  * For [literallynoonecares](https://archiveofourown.org/users/literallynoonecares/gifts).



Everything was perfect. The glittering lights hanging above the tables, casting sparkles that looked like they were dancing over everyone’s faces. The small tables with the white tablecloths full of people chattering and laughing. The music playing that kept convincing people to get out of their chairs and take to the dance floor, set in the middle of all the tables. The night air warm and balmy but with just the right amount of breeze blowing against everyone, making it so the women weren’t overheated in their fancy dresses nor the men in their suits and bowties.

It was perfect. The setting, the atmosphere, the people. But most of all the newly married couple.

Rey had been watching two of her best friends — the newly married Poe and Finn — spend the last hour hand in hand on the dance floor, swirling around like there was no one else in the world except the two of them. She didn’t think their eyes had even moved away from the other for a second.

She took another sip of her drink as she watched, and then leaned forward, her chin on her palms as she rested her elbows on the table. She felt warm and heady, like she wasn’t quite there anymore, her body a little tingly and light-headed. But she also felt, despite the rush of happiness she felt for her two friends, a deep sense of sadness trying to push its way out of the deepest recesses of her heart and up into the surface.

It had been the three of them, and then the four of them, for so long, and now two of them had found eternity in each other. It was the best thing that could possibly happen, but Rey couldn’t help the part of her that wished that maybe someday it could be her.

She sighed wistfully as she watched her two friends lean in toward each other as they danced, their lips meeting and melding together as they seemed to become one person instead of two separate beings. She had seen them kiss so many times, but this kiss … it was special.

“I just want someone to kiss me like that,” she mused softly to herself, her eyes not leaving her friends.

“I could make that happen if you wanted.”

Rey startled. She bolted upright, her hands flying out and knocking her drink over, the liquid pouring across the table and on to the floor. She turned to her left to stare at her other best friend, Ben, her face glowing red in humiliation.

Ben grabbed the napkins nearest him and began mopping up her drink. “I’m sorry,” he said quickly. “Let me get you another one.”

Rey shook her head, so embarrassed she could barely speak. No one was supposed to have heard that, let alone Ben. 

“No, I should just …” She didn’t know what she was even trying to say. She made a move to stand up, to flee to some place she could relive her shame in private, but Ben’s hand, warm and comforting on her arm, kept her from going anywhere.

“I meant it, Rey,” he said slowly. His eyes found hers, dark and deep and penetrating. She looked away, her cheeks flaming anew. “I could kiss you like that.”

“You don’t mean that,” she muttered.

“I do.” He paused. “You think I don’t remember the first time we kissed? I dream about it every night.”

“You thought you were dying.”

“It doesn’t mean it wasn’t real or it didn’t mean anything.”

Rey shook her head. This was too much. She could barely think straight, the combination of Ben’s touch and his words and the drinks she had been pounding all swirling together in her brain.

She pushed herself to her feet, clinging on to the table so she wouldn’t fall or change her mind.

“If you mean it,” she heard herself say, “If it’s true. Then tell me again tomorrow when we’re both sober.”

She turned then and headed off, to go home or to find another drink, she didn’t know which. She just knew she had to get away.

-

Rey didn’t see Ben again for two days. She spent most of the next day in bed, regretting her actions of the night before, and then the day after that, she spent it in bed again, this time too ashamed to venture out in public. What if she saw Ben? She wasn’t sure if she was more afraid of him saying he did still want to kiss her or saying he didn’t.

Had he really meant what he said when he told her he thought about their kiss, or was it just the alcohol talking? They had both thought he was dying back when it happened, and he had saved her life after Palpatine had tried to kill her just moments before. Plus, she never could deny they had always had a connection, ever since the first time they had met.

But then the rebels had managed to save him and she had managed to convince everyone he was on their side, and he had spent months trying to become the good guy she always knew he had been inside. And she, Poe and Finn had accepted him into their friendship like it had never been any different.

They were best friends, all of them. And yes, it had worked out for Poe and Finn, but could it really work out for her and Ben? Maybe she should just be happy with what they had and continue ignoring the part of her that dreamed of something more?

Finally, though, she knew she could hide from the world — and Ben — no longer and on the third day after the wedding, she got dressed and made her way out into the daylight. He found her just after breakfast.

“Want to go for a walk?”

She nodded and took his arm as they left the base behind, heading out into an area that was almost deserted. They walked for a while, neither one saying anything, until finally they came to a bench and Ben gestured for her to sit next to him on it.

She did, her heart in her throat, and waited for him to speak.

“I meant what I said the other night,” he told her, “But I don’t know if you meant what you said.”

“What I said?” Rey furrowed her brow, trying to remember. 

_I just want someone to kiss me like that._

She felt the familiar warmth of embarrassment come upon her. “Oh,” she said, trying to act casual, “About being kissed?”

Ben nodded, peering at her, waiting for her to answer. 

She fumbled around for something to say. 

“I meant it in the moment,” she finally settled on. It wasn’t exactly a lie, just maybe not the complete truth.

If he was disappointed by her answer, he didn’t show it. Instead, he straitened his shoulders just a little and took a deep breath, and then he spoke again. “I’ve had feelings for you practically since we met.”

Rey shook her head. “You don’t mean that.”

“Yes, I do.”

Rey shook her head again and this time looked away from him. “Don’t say things like that. You know that could change everything between us.”

“I’m hoping it does.”

Rey didn’t expect that. Her heart gave a lurch, and she found herself looking back at him. She bit down on her lip. “What we have now is special.”

“And it could be better.”

“You really believe that?

“Do you trust me?

Rey nodded. That was easy. “With my life.”

“Then trust me in saying this is what I want, and I think we could be amazing together.”

Rey took a breath, twisting her fingers in her lap. It was what she had wanted to hear, what she had dreamed of hearing, but she was still so unsure … “What if it doesn’t work out?”

“What if it does?”

Rey didn’t have an argument for that. If she was honest with herself, she didn’t have an argument for any of it really, just fear and nerves. But then she thought of Finn and Poe and the way they looked at each other and the way no one else mattered to them when the other was around.

She had also told herself that she was not going to let fear stop her from anything, so why should this be any different?

She leaned in toward Ben. He leaned in toward her, raising his hands and placing his palms gently on the sides of her face. Their eyes met, locked, and Rey felt her heart practically explode.

They moved closer together, and then his lips were touching hers, and she melted. Her arms went around his neck and her eyes closed and she was lost, in his touch, in his feel, in his presence, in his everything.

He kissed her harder, more intensely, and she returned the favor. His hand was stroking her cheek, the other one behind her head, and her body was warm and tingling and she thought she was going to burst into flames.

And then she knew — as they kissed and melted and melded into each other, she knew. Ben had been right. This _is_ what she had been looking for all along.


End file.
